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No-nonsense China Expat & Travel CommunityThu, 10 Nov 2016 21:58:30 +0000en-US
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1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.2.3Review: Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countrysidehttps://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/ae/literature/review-mountains-countryside/
https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/ae/literature/review-mountains-countryside/#commentsThu, 10 Nov 2016 21:55:35 +0000http://www.lostlaowai.com/?p=8977Quincy Carroll's Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside is, on its surface, a tale of two foreigner teachers in China -- the idealistic, 'in search of the real real China', young Daniel; and the jaded, booze-soaked, cynical old Thomas. For anyone who has lived in China, they are characterizations of personalities we've all met, and perhaps been, at some point.

Their lives converge in Ningyuan, a rural town in southern Hunan, where they both teach at a local school. Daniel is a loved-by-all, teacher of good standing, who is eager to drink in every drop of authentic China the town has to offer him. Thomas, meanwhile, shows up in the town with a collection of burnt bridges behind him, and decades of damage to his liver turning his every action into a labour. Injecting herself between the two of them is Bella, an overachieving young student who is compulsive in her quest to learn English and consume foreign culture.

And while the characters have been inked as stereotypes familiar to any laowai, Carroll never missteps and falls blandly into cliche. The exceptionally well-written piece of fiction, particularly for a debut novel, is a joyful read. The story’s players, even minor ones, are fleshed out with empathy and understanding that can only be achieved by having been on the front lines. Indeed, it was from his own experiences living and teaching in Hunan for several years that Carroll drew for the story.

His expat cred and eye for detail gives the story an authentic depth that never tries too hard. While many idiosyncrasies are sure to pass by readers that don’t have experience in the country, the story is the better for it. The casually dropped peculiarities of everyday China living are never over explained, but rather left hanging for some to appreciate and others to ponder on.

Stepping back from the novel, you can see that it is not just a story of protagonist vs. antagonist. Daniel and Thomas are not simply two conflicting and conflicted individuals, but rather two points of the same story. They are the start and the end of a journey that doesn’t have any rules and can be punishing and propitious. The reasons for living abroad are as diverse as they are complex, and Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside is an excellent exploration of it.

]]>https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/ae/literature/review-mountains-countryside/feed/1China’s First World War — Part Two: The Battle of Tsingtaohttps://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/china-stuff/chinese-history/chinas-first-world-war-part-two-battle-tsingtao/
https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/china-stuff/chinese-history/chinas-first-world-war-part-two-battle-tsingtao/#commentsMon, 07 Nov 2016 18:44:52 +0000http://www.lostlaowai.com/?p=9072For most expats in China, the name “Tsingtao” conjures up images of beer, but for fans of military history it’s a name associated with the most important episode of China’s First World War: the siege and battle for the German port settlement on the Shandong Peninsula’s southern coast. The Japanese attack, made with British assistance, …

]]>For most expats in China, the name “Tsingtao” conjures up images of beer, but for fans of military history it’s a name associated with the most important episode of China’s First World War: the siege and battle for the German port settlement on the Shandong Peninsula’s southern coast. The Japanese attack, made with British assistance, lasted two months and ended with German surrender on November 7.British troops landing to assist Japanese troops in capturing Tsingtao from Germany, 1914. (wikipedia.org)

Tsingtao (now known as Qingdao) became a German possession in 1898; by 1913 the population had quickly grown to about 55,000 Chinese and 5,000 Europeans and Japanese. It was under the control of the Reichsmarineamt (German Imperial Navy), and was the home port for Germany’s Far East Squadron, though the fleet was not there at the time of the battle. (At the outbreak of the war, the squadron commander Admiral Graf von Spee took the fleet out of Tsingtao to avoid being trapped in the port.)

Japan’s entry into the First World War was a result of regional ambitions and its alliance with Britain, signed in 1902 with both parties motivated by a common interest in restricting Russian expansion. Japan declared war against Germany on August 23, 1914. Ten days later Japanese troops landed on the Shandong Peninsula; this was a violation of China’s neutrality, but Peking – struggling to hold the country together after the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 – was not in a position to defend its sovereignty.

Japanese troops numbered 23,000 and Britain contributed 1,500 (as well as a squadron of warships); the German garrison was about four-thousand strong. As well as being outnumbered 1 to 6, the Germans were isolated, outgunned at sea, on land, and in the air, yet they put up a determined resistance. Allied casualties numbered about 730 killed, while the Germans suffered 199 dead.

The Aviator of Tsingtao

German naval pilot Gunther Plüschow

The standout character from the battle of Tsingtao was German naval pilot Gunther Plüschow. He had made his first flight over Tsingtao on July 28, the same day Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia (and thereby starting the First World War). A few days later, Plüschow’s sole flying colleague crashed the colony’s second Taube monoplane during its maiden flight, injuring himself and destroying the aircraft. Plüschow was left as a one-man air force. In his barely-airworthy monoplane, he flew missions alone, armed with only a pistol, all the while dodging ground fire and the enemy’s superior biplanes as he spied on Allied positions and movements.

Adding to the excitement was the makeshift nature of Plüschow’s “airfield.” He took off from and landed at the local racecourse, which was much too short for the purpose. Today the site of the racecourse is part of Huiquan Square.

The Japanese enjoyed almost complete air supremacy. Their Navy Flying Corps had four seaplanes – French Maurice Farman biplanes – which were larger, faster, and more heavily armed than the Taube. The Japanese Army had four Farmans of its own, which were operated from a purpose-built airfield at Tsimo (Jimo), about 40 kilometres to the north.

Against terrible odds, Plüschow took to the skies day after day, gaining valuable intelligence for his beleaguered comrades. He also made several daring bombing attacks against the Allies using improvised munitions.

On the eve of surrender, Plüschow was given important documents and ordered to fly to nominally neutral China. Here in his own words, he describes his dramatic last minutes in the German enclave:

There was no more time to lose. The aviation field had become extremely uncomfortable through the continuous shell and shrapnel fire.

Once more I examined my machine, shook hands with my men, stroked the head of my faithful dog, then I opened the throttle and my Taube shot like an arrow into the night.

Suddenly, as I was just about 30 metres above the centre of the aerodrome, my machine received a fearful jar, and I was able to prevent her crashing downwards only by putting forth all my strength. An enemy grenade had just burst, and the air-pressure caused by the detonation nearly sent me to the ground. But, thank goodness, a big hole in my left plane [wing] caused by a shell-splinter was the only damage.

The usual hail of shrapnel followed — my last farewells from the Japs and their English Allies.

Plüschow flew his monoplane southwest into China. As neutral territory, China meant safety – on paper at least. However, the country was economically and politically more closely tied to the Allies, so it favoured them over the Germans, and would formally end its neutrality in August 1917 (four months after the United States) to join the winning side.

His plane out of fuel, Plüschow crash-landed in a paddy field and a crowd of peasants soon gathered around, pressing forward in awed wonder.

…when I clambered out of my machine and tried to signal to them, there was no holding them. They all fled, howling and screaming, the men first, leaving the children who dropped behind as peace-offerings to the devil. I do not think my appearance could have caused greater consternation in darkest Africa.

With prompt decision I ran after them, hauling three or four of them by their pigtails to the machine, so as to convince them that the big bird was harmless.

This helped after a little, and when I presented them with some gold pieces they averred that by a lucky chance they were in the presence of a Good Spirit; therefore, they willingly helped to place the aeroplane in a horizontal position once more. When the others saw this, they gathered round in such crowds that I was surprised the machine was not crushed.

How the Chinese marvelled! How they touched and examined everything! How they laughed and chattered!

The German was taken by the authorities to the city of Nanking, where he found himself under de facto house arrest, but not for long. He escaped and made his way to Shanghai, where he went into hiding. Several months later, he set sail for San Francisco under the alias of McGarvin. Plüschow crossed the United States and then sailed from New York for Europe under a new identity. Captured when passing through the the British colony of Gibraltar, he was shipped to England, where he was interned in a series of POW camps, the last of which was at Donington Hall in the Midlands.

I’ll leave the details of the escape to Plüschow himself in his bestselling account of his exploits, Die Abenteuer des Fliegers von Tsingtau (The Adventures of the Airman of Tsingtao), but in short, he and a fellow officer broke out after midnight on July 6, 1915. His companion was soon apprehended but Plüschow managed to evade the police and the watchful eye of the public alerted by “wanted” posters and the newspapers. After a week on the run and several failed attempts, Plüschow finally managed to stow away on a Dutch ship to the neutral Netherlands. From there he travelled home to a hero’s welcome. He was, as far as is known, the only German in either world war to escape from Britain and get back to the Fatherland.

An English edition of Plüschow’s book came out in 1922. Despite the rather dull title, My Escape from Donington Hall, it’s beautifully written, fast-paced, and rousing. It was republished as an e-book in 2014 as The Aviator of Tsingtao by Camphor Press.

Plüschow died in an aircraft crash in 1931 while on an expedition to Patagonia.

]]>https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/china-stuff/chinese-history/chinas-first-world-war-part-two-battle-tsingtao/feed/1Watch: China’s Immigrantshttps://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/ae/china-videos/watch-chinas-immigrants/
https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/ae/china-videos/watch-chinas-immigrants/#commentsFri, 04 Nov 2016 06:41:02 +0000http://www.lostlaowai.com/?p=8989A short documentary that looks at the atypical experiences of foreigners in China, including the excitement of arrival, the challenges of staying here long-term, and finding acceptance or choosing to leave. The film is a masters degree project at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, in Suzhou, and was produced by Krystal Soroka, Bryan Song and Danny Abbasi.

]]>A short documentary that looks at the atypical experiences of foreigners in China, including the excitement of arrival, the challenges of staying here long-term, and finding acceptance or choosing to leave. The film is a masters degree project at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, in Suzhou, and was produced by Krystal Soroka, Bryan Song and Danny Abbasi.

]]>https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/ae/china-videos/watch-chinas-immigrants/feed/4China’s First World War — Part One: The Chinese Labour Corpshttps://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/china-stuff/chinese-history/chinas-first-world-war-part-one-chinese-labour-corps/
https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/china-stuff/chinese-history/chinas-first-world-war-part-one-chinese-labour-corps/#commentsWed, 02 Nov 2016 17:43:52 +0000http://www.lostlaowai.com/?p=9055Neutral up until August 1917 and far from the carnage of Europe, China had a relatively quiet First World War. Its limited involvement in the conflict consisted chiefly of two episodes: the sending of Chinese labourers to France and Russia; and the 1914 battle at the German enclave of Tsingtao (Qingdao) on the Shandong Peninsula …

]]>Neutral up until August 1917 and far from the carnage of Europe, China had a relatively quiet First World War. Its limited involvement in the conflict consisted chiefly of two episodes: the sending of Chinese labourers to France and Russia; and the 1914 battle at the German enclave of Tsingtao (Qingdao) on the Shandong Peninsula (in addition, there was political fallout over when the 1919 Treaty of Versailles awarded the former German territory to the Japanese).

In this two-part series for Lost Laowai I’ll give background on these two events and look at two books written by participants in China’s First World War. First, we turn to the story of the Chinese labourers.

Men of the Chinese Labour Corps load sacks of oats onto a lorry at Boulogne while supervised by a British officer (12 August 1917) – wikipedia.org

Starting in 1916, China allowed around 140,000 labourers to be recruited for service in France and Belgium. The labourers were volunteers, mostly poor farmers attracted by high pay.

An even greater number (perhaps 200,000) of Chinese labourers were recruited to work in Tsarist Russia. Whereas the workers in Western Europe had contracts and were under the management of the British and French authorities, the labourers who went to Russia were hired by private companies and individuals. Conditions were terrible and only became worse as Russia descended into the chaos of revolution and civil war. According to Mark O’Neill, author of From the Tsar’s Railway to the Red Army, about 40,000 of the Chinese workers ended up in the Red Army fighting the White Army.

The unfortunately titled book With the Chinks (1919) by Daryl Klein, a Second Lieutenant in the Chinese Labour Corps, describes the recruitment, basic training, and transportation from China to France of a contingent of labourers. Of the nearly 140,000 male labourers recruited for service in France and Belgium, about 95,000 served with the British Army’s Chinese Labour Corps (CLC) performing menial non-combat tasks such as digging trenches, clearing battlefields, and carrying supplies, and occasionally doing more skilled work such as repairing tanks. The 40,000 Chinese labourers recruited by the French government worked away from the frontlines in factories and docks.

CLC recruits signed three-year contracts. Those hired by the French signed for five years but otherwise had a better deal: they enjoyed the same rights and pay as French workers, and had the right to remain in France after completing their contracts (several thousand decided to stay on).

The majority of CLC labourers were recruited from Shandong in northeastern China because the men — as well as being better suited to the cold European winters — were larger and considered stronger than their southern counterparts.

A recruitment centre was established in the British-leased port of Weihaiwei in eastern Shandong, but after a disappointing muster of 1,088 men in three months, the headquarters was moved to Tsingtao, the German enclave port captured by Japanese and British forces in late 1914. The main recruitment depot was at a large abandoned German silk factory in Tsang-kou (Cangkou) fifteen kilometres north of Tsingtao on the Shandong railway.

It is here that the author Daryl Klein arrived in late 1917 to train recruits and then accompany a contingent to France. Klein describes the processing and training of “coolies” at the Tsang-kou camp and the long journey to Europe (but does not actually cover the CLC work in Europe). Klein sailed from Tsingtao in February 1918 along with twelve other officers, 4,200 workers, five interpreters and a medical assistant.

Klein is patronising but sympathetic in his assessment of the Chinese men.

The coolie whom we trained and brought to France is a simple, jolly fellow. He is content with the very simplicities of life; he steals, but not overmuch; he is to be trusted. He is extraordinarily happy; he grins and grins; he is good to his fellow-creature.

As an example of the latter virtue, Klein describes how the men took care of each other when they first encountered rough seas and the resulting seasickness.

A handful — old sea-dogs or those fortunate ones who are not affected at sea — were assisting their brothers. They showed the sort of spirit which makes one positively love the Chinese — the Chinese of Shantung at any rate. They are wonderfully good to one another in adversity. They have warm hearts and willing hands. There was something so eternally and touchingly human about this business that whatever vestige remained in me of the conventional conception of the coolie quite disappeared. I could and can no longer associate (primarily) with the coolie the faintest idea of frigidity, of yellow skin stretched over puny bones. The red blood runs strong within them. They are the backbone of China, whose body one day shall be again politically and spiritually great.

The earliest labourers were transported to Europe via the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal but this changed following the February 1917 torpedoing of the French steamship Athos. After this sinking, in which 543 Chinese labourers died, longer, safer routes were used, most often across the Pacific Ocean to Canada, by rail to Halifax, and then across the Atlantic to France.

The Chinese labourers’ transportation through Canada was done secretly, the Canadian government issuing a news blackout. The Chinese arrivals were kept at William Head Quarantine Station on Vancouver Island, then ferried to the mainland and railed to the east coast in locked train cars under armed guard. The secrecy and security were designed to bypass the exorbitant “head tax” of C$500 on Chinese emigrants, avoid any xenophobic reaction from the local Canadian populace, and stop any jittery recruits from “jumping train.”

Klein’s journey to France was unusual in that rather than riding the Canadian Pacific Railway, his company sailed far south from Vancouver Island and into the Atlantic through the recently opened Panama Canal.

War’s end didn’t bring a quick return passage for the Chinese labourers. There was a shortage of ships to take them home. Furthermore, their contracts (three or five years) were not yet up, and their labour was badly needed for reconstruction work. It would be September 1920 before all the CLC were repatriated. The French repatriated the last of their Chinese workers in 1922. In total about three thousand Chinese labourers in Europe died from bombing, accidents, or disease.

In With the Chinks Klein and his fellow officers express confidence that the coolies would not only acquit themselves well (which they did) but that they would return home as a positive modernising influence for the country. This did not transpire. They did not become the hoped-for reforming force once home in China. The majority settled back into the conservative rhythms of rural life, their youth and low social status restraints on any modernising impulses they may have felt.

The labourers did, though, have an important indirect effect. Chinese intellectuals (both those who were studying in France and others who went there to help the CLC) were deeply affected by their contact with the workers. These intellectuals, through a variety of organisations such as the YMCA, provided services for the labourers – writing letters home, teaching literary classes, and giving lectures to educate the men about the wide world beyond China. This was a meeting between two classes of Chinese which would normally not have taken place in China. In France they were simply fellow Chinese in a strange land in difficult times. Some of these intellectuals went back to China with a mission to educate the masses, the Yale-educated James Yen, for example, who in the following years devoted himself to mass literacy and rural reconstruction campaigns.

With the Chinks is in the public domain. You can read it online or download an ebook file for free from archive.org.

Anyone wanting to learn more about the CLC should read Mark O’Neill’s short but excellent The Chinese Labour Corps (Penguin Special, 2014).

]]>https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/china-stuff/chinese-history/chinas-first-world-war-part-one-chinese-labour-corps/feed/4Watch: How Uyghur naan bread is madehttps://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/ae/china-videos/watch-uyghur-naan-bread-made/
https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/ae/china-videos/watch-uyghur-naan-bread-made/#respondFri, 30 Sep 2016 20:42:27 +0000http://www.lostlaowai.com/?p=9004In this video Josh Summers over at Far West China explores all that goes into Uyghur naan bread. Be sure to check out the full post for more on the process of making Uyghur naan bread.

]]>https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/ae/china-videos/watch-uyghur-naan-bread-made/feed/0Interview with Ada Shen: Advice for Americans voting abroadhttps://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/expat-stuff/china-expat-advice/interview-ada-shen-advice-americans-voting-abroad/
https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/expat-stuff/china-expat-advice/interview-ada-shen-advice-americans-voting-abroad/#commentsWed, 28 Sep 2016 14:32:08 +0000http://www.lostlaowai.com/?p=9015With the US elections right around the corner, and it being one of the most pugnacious in modern history, we thought we'd check in with Beijing's resident electoral pundit, Ada Shen, and see if she had some advice for Americans abroad that would like to cast their vote, but may not know all the details.

First, as one of the most outspoken and engaged people on American politics in my sphere; I’m curious to know what first got you interested in politics and what keeps you interested?

In 2000, George Bush won Florida by 537 votes, out of 6 million ballots cast. And he led us to war in Iraq essentially on hopped up charges. Whatever one thinks about his presidency and that war, for me it is indisputable that our elections for president are especially far-reaching in their ramifications, for us and everyone else on the planet. I feel like as Americans, as voters in a democracy, it is a right and a responsibility to try to engage and clarify our politics to make them work for us, and not the other way around. Especially as Americans living overseas, our distance and experience abroad gives us, I think, an important perspective.

What are the essential dates or deadlines Americans abroad should be aware of for voting?

Short message:Today. Today is the deadline if you haven’t registered to vote or aren’t sure, it’s still not too late — do it now!

Election Day: Tuesday, November 8 is Election Day this year.

Deadlines to register or request a ballot actually vary by state. Registration deadlines begin to close in early October. If you have registered previously, and you just need to request an absentee ballot, that deadline is usually later — some allow you to request a ballot up to election day. But again, the international mail system is the great bottleneck here, so we advise people to get it done now. Those who got in a ballot request or registered earlier this year are already getting their ballots.

The overseas absentee ballot has to be requested every year with a single federal form that both registers you and requests, called a Federal Post Card Application [FPCA]. That means if a voter didn’t complete and mail in an FPCA since January 2016, then they still need to send it in. We also advise that folks follow up with their Local Election Office [LEO] to make sure they are registered without issue.

All of this information by state is available online via FVAP.gov run by the DOD, VoteFromAbroad.org run by Democrats Abroad (on a non-partisan basis, really!) and OverseasVoteFoundation.org — all provide the same information, and produce the same FPCA form. I think VFA is the easiest to use, but they all do essentially the same thing. All of them require that you print, sign and mail the FPCA. There is no 100% fully automated online way of doing this. So the main bottleneck for voters is getting materials in by the deadline. For receiving ballots, as of this year all states offer an electronic delivery option for receiving your ballot, so I strongly recommend people choose to receive their ballot by email.

It’s because printing and mailing can actually be obstacles in China that in 2008 we started offering voter registration help with volunteers offering printing and mail assistance. We did it in 2008, 2012, and now again this year — we had seven events in three cities this past weekend. VFA also has chat agents standing by to provide assistance to voters.

If you registered before now, then states are required to send you your ballot 45 days before election day — that means last week all these folks received their ballots. Overseas voters also get to use a Federal Write in Absentee Ballot, the FWAB (aren’t these acronyms great?), also known as the back up ballot. If you haven’t received your state ballot by the first week of October, we recommend that you vote your back up ballot and get that in the mail, and then if you get your state ballot, you can vote that too. Your LEO will just count the state ballot if they get it, or the FWAB if they do not. It doesn’t invalidate your vote.

Who is eligible to vote in the upcoming election, and are there any limits or conditions that Americans should be aware of?

If you are 18 years or older by election day and a US citizen, then technically speaking you have the right to vote in US Federal Elections. That is President, Vice President, and House and Senate races.

This right is administered by the state in which you last resided in the US — this is your state for voting purposes, even if you don’t live there any more, even if the house is gone or has new residents.

Your local elections official needs to receive and approve your registration and will send the right ballot for you (either federal only for those abroad indefinitely, or including state races and ballot measures for those abroad temporarily). You will need to provide the last four digits of your SSN or a state ID like a drivers license. Other forms of ID like a passport may also work, it varies by state.

For US citizens born overseas, the voting state is that of their parents, or where their parents last lived.

However, some states this year are beginning to reject ballot requests from US citizens who were born overseas. Even those who have successfully registered before. This is one of the issues that Democrats Abroad is working on along with other overseas American advocacy groups to try to get addressed by Congress.

What would you say is the most common misconception about voting abroad? Any particular challenges?

“I can’t vote. I don’t have a US address anymore.” False. Regardless of how long you have lived outside the country, you always retain the right to vote in US federal elections. Your legal voting address is the last place you resided prior to departing the US. If you have never lived in the US, many states will allow you to vote using the legal voting address of one of your American parents. Also, depending on state law, it could be that studying or summering in the US is enough to establish residence. Check with you local elections official.

“I don’t need to register. I did it last time.” False. Voters living abroad need to mail in a ballot request every federal election year. Even ‘permanent absentee’ registration in some states, like in CA where I vote, may require the FPCA form to be sent every election year to register/request an overseas absentee ballot.

“They don’t even count overseas ballots.” WRONG. Absolutely 100% false. By law, every legitimate absentee ballot cast must be counted before a final vote count can be certified. What happens is that when the number of outstanding ballots (overseas or otherwise) is smaller than the difference between two candidates, the winner gets called on a preliminary basis — sometimes now it is the media doing it, as with CA during the primaries — but ALL outstanding ballots are counted before the election result can be certified. And every election result is certified.

“My vote won’t make a difference.” WRONG. Just look at recent election results. Florida 2000: George W. Bush won FL and therefore the Presidency by 537 votes. Washington 2004: Christine Gregoire wins Governor by just 133 votes. Minnesota 2008: Al Franken wins Senate race by 312 votes. There are over 6 million eligible voters living overseas, not including the military. The overseas vote can absolutely make a difference.

“If I vote, the IRS will hassle me.” WRONG. Voting in US federal elections does not affect the determination of tax liability or tax residence. You will not hear from the IRS because you voted in a federal election (i.e. President, Senate, or House of Representatives). Note: Voting in state and local elections can potentially affect state and local tax status. You should seek expert advice before voting in state or local elections.

From your experience, would you say that many expats are engaged in the electoral process while living abroad, or do you find that many see it more as only something they need to do when living back “home”?

This is a really interesting question — I would say that the expat perspective on voting is as varied as expats themselves. Obviously different countries have a different perspective and policy on overseas voting, it’s not all the same. Some are time limited, some don’t allow it at all. Of course the US is one of the few countries to tax citizens globally, so I think the right to vote is important to exercise: we are still paying for wars even if we don’t vote for them. And the well-being of all my friends and family, my community back home is still important to me.

Some people feel like they are no longer in touch with issues back home, and so decline to vote or at least decline to vote on candidates or issues they don’t understand. I can respect that. I just feel like we live in such a connected world now, it’s incumbent on us as those who are lucky enough to have a more global perspective to be active and engage and voice that perspective, and to really test it by listening to what is going on with people back home too.

It’s really trying to square the circle I suppose, but to me that is one of the best things about having lived overseas for the last 18 years — I hope I will be grappling with this, and arguing about politics, and registering voters, all my life.

Many thanks to Ada Shen for taking the time to share this information and her thoughts on voting while abroad. While many of us may not be Americans (myself included), it’s impossible to ignore the American presidential election, and as Ada mentioned above — the results are much more far reaching than to just the citizenry of a single North American nation.

Ada Shen is a member of Democrats Abroad in China, and has been helping voters register here since the first Global Presidential Primary in 2008. When not registering American expats to vote, Ada works in the nonprofit sector on sustainable city development policy. She lives in Beijing with her husband Emmanuel who is French, and who never thought he would hear so much about US politics in his life. You can follow Ada on Facebook.

Beijing

@ The Bridge Cafe, Wudaokou, Haidian
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5 mins from Wudaokou station: head West on Chengfu Lu, then South at intersection, The Bridge is on the right.
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Chengdu

@ The Bookworm Chengdu
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]]>https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/expat-stuff/china-expat-advice/interview-ada-shen-advice-americans-voting-abroad/feed/110 years as a lost laowai: where have we been, where are we going?https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/site-stuff/10-years-lost-laowai-going/
https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/site-stuff/10-years-lost-laowai-going/#commentsMon, 26 Sep 2016 02:09:58 +0000http://www.lostlaowai.com/?p=9011It's been well over a year since the last post here at Lost Laowai, and for that I probably owe an apology. Which, admittedly, is an odd way to start a post touting the fact that Lost Laowai has been in existence for 10 years this month.

The truth is, the last couple years have been a blur for me, this site’s primary (and frequently torpid) engine of movement. A lot of changes have occurred to both this site and myself since, in the mid-naughties, I started it all in earnest. While there have been many starts and stops, the most recent stall has by far been the longest and most neglectful. But I’m working on turning that all around.

As many laowai friends and long-time readers may know, I packed my bags and left China shortly after my 10th Chinaversary last year. With a growing family and an ever-pressing need to set down roots (preferably in cleaner soil), the move was somewhat inevitable. So it is, I now write to you dear reader from the beginnings of a new-ish life back in my homeland, a laowai no longer.

The move out of China created an existential crisis of sorts when it came to running a site about being an expat in China. At first the break was meant for me to get settled, and then it turned into realizing I was quickly becoming irrelevant to the subject of this site. Unable to stomach saying goodbye to this thing I’ve poured countless hours and love into, a place where I’ve met great friends and made baseless enemies, I left it to flounder.

But no more. My hope is that the site–with the help of its nearly 50 contributors, 860 posts and nearly 8,500 comments–has outgrown the geographical trappings of a single human. And while I am still very much enamored with the laowai community I was apart of for over a decade as well as the country that hosts it, I think Lost Laowai can continue to be a platform for expats in China to share their stories, opinions, gripes and more.

However, it’s going to require help. We need contributors, whether you’re newly arrived or still kicking around, if you’ve got something to share, please get in touch. It’s also going to take work, by me, a father knee-deep in children and a full-time job. I have an ambitious list of todos sitting in front of me, and I’m eager to get started on them. They may come in fits and starts, but watch for announcements as they make their way onto the site.

Meanwhile, I have some reviews and interviews on deck that are sure to interest while I wake up the gerbils and get the wheels running here again.

So, to those that have been with me since the beginning of this journey, and the ones that have stumbled here along the way, thank you. It’s your readership, contributions and commentary that make this place something I couldn’t give up. I look forward to continuing the conversation with you. And to those that are just discovering Lost Laowai for the first time, welcome. I look forward to getting to know you.

]]>https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/site-stuff/10-years-lost-laowai-going/feed/8E-RICH: Jack Ma Banks on ONLINE ERRTHINGhttps://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/china-stuff/china-business-law/e-rich-jack-ma-banks-on-online-errthing/
https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/china-stuff/china-business-law/e-rich-jack-ma-banks-on-online-errthing/#respondTue, 16 Jun 2015 15:33:23 +0000http://www.lostlaowai.com/?p=8856Jack Ma is working so that you never have to go to the bank again.

Alipay, the finance arm of Alibaba Group has been separated out to make Ant Financial. Super new and a bit secretive, Ant Financial is revolutionizing the game with a bevy of online banking services, nimbly filling niches that the Chinese banking sector hasn’t been able to.

Using rhetoric of building an open financial ecosystem, Ant Financial has created one of the world’s largest money-market funds and has microfinanced more than 20 million rural merchants last year. And in a monumental win for the e-banking movement, Chinese regulators just greenlit the creation of MYBank (update here), an all digital, branchless bank.

Want to try your hand at e-banking in China? Zhifu me to support further Sindicator installments.

The name ‘Ant Financial’ harkens back to a Jack Ma-ntra; when introducing Taobao he proclaimed, “We are the ant army”. Indeed, by connecting businesses all over the world to Chinese suppliers via Alibaba platforms, Ma’s brand of e-commerce has enfranchised what he calls the ‘ant army’ of Chinese manufacturers.

If the ‘ants’ bank by using ‘online ERRTHING’ what happens to Chinese banking as we know it? Sindicator takes a look at the 270 million-strong Ant Army and its booming financier Ant Financial, valued at over $30 billion.

]]>https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/china-stuff/china-business-law/e-rich-jack-ma-banks-on-online-errthing/feed/05 things you must experience in Xinjianghttps://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/china-stuff/china-travel/5-things-you-must-experience-in-xinjiang/
https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/china-stuff/china-travel/5-things-you-must-experience-in-xinjiang/#commentsFri, 08 May 2015 01:48:21 +0000http://www.lostlaowai.com/?p=8821Anybody who has lived abroad knows that having friends and family come to visit is both a blessing and a curse. It's a lot of fun to introduce them to your foreign home but also quite a bit of work to keep them happy and entertained.

Having lived in Xinjiang, the largest and westernmost region in China, for almost 10 years now, there have been a number of times where family have come to visit. The longer we live here, the more I notice the one thing I love most about hosting travelers in Xinjiang: seeing my home through fresh eyes.

You know how it goes: you live somewhere long enough, you tend to overlook those cities, landmarks or panoramic views that once sparked a sense of excitement and wonder. It’s easy to forget that where you live is unlike anywhere else in the world. It is unique.

I had a good reminder of how much I love traveling Xinjiang during a recent visit by some friends from home. Taking them around, I was given the opportunity to experience what it was like to see this region for the first time. They were in awe and completely excited to be visiting each new place I took them.

The next week, I received an email from another friend who was planning a trip to Xinjiang. His question was simple: what would I recommend he see? Armed with a fresh view of the region, I was able to confidently give him the following five ideas:

1. Visit a Uyghur market

Kashgar Market. Photo by Josh Summers.

I’m not talking about a shopping mall or grocery store. I’m not even referring to a proper building with stalls or street vendors. The kind of Uyghur market that offers a true Xinjiang experience smells like animals and sounds like a circus.

Small villages around Kashgar, an ancient stop on the Silk Road and one of Xinjiang’s most popular tourist destinations, host these kinds of markets every day of the week. Some are known for their camels and others for their donkeys.

What they have in common is the opportunity to see authentic life in a remote part of the world where bartering a good price for a sheep is an art form that every local man must learn.

2. Travel the World’s Most Beautiful Highway

Some people might argue with me here, but I’m confident that the Karakoram Highway is the most beautiful highway in the world. It leads to the Khunerjab Pass, the highest paved border crossing in the world, but that’s not what makes it so special.

Along the way, it is possible to make a visit to numerous glaciers and hundred-foot waterfalls while winding between fantastic valleys created by towering mountain peaks. Memorable stops at the Karakul Lake or at the foot of Muztaghata mountain are a must.

The entire journey from Kashgar to Tashkorgan near the Pakistani border is equivalent to climbing a small mountain in terms of elevation and the entire time I guarantee you’ll have your camera hanging out the window of your vehicle.

3. Stay in a Kazakh yurt in the Ili grasslands

Kazakh Yurt. Photo by Josh Summers.

What most people know about Xinjiang mostly revolves around the Uyghur people; and rightly so, since they make up over 50% of the population. However, the fact that the region shares a long stretch of border with Kazakhstan means that there is also a substantial number of Kazakhs in Xinjiang.

The vast majority of the Kazakh people live around Ili and Altay, both northern regions of Xinjiang that border Kazakhstan. Many are still nomadic herders by trade and their traditional homes, known as yurts, can be seen scattered across the grasslands.

Spending the night in one of these yurts is quite a memorable experience. The cylindrical, animal skin-covered tent can accommodate about 10 people who sleep on the ground covered by stuffed blankets.

Fake yurts aimed at tourist exist all across Xinjiang, but the best experience comes from finding the yurt home of a local family willing to host guests.

4. Walk through the ancient cities of Turpan

In my opinion, Turpan is the most underrated city in all of Xinjiang. It’s the first place that I recommend travelers visit, not only because it’s conveniently close to the capital of Urumqi but also because it is home to some of the Silk Road’s best-preserved ancient cities.

Places like Jiaohe and Gaochang, once vibrant communities of monks and merchants, remain in excellent condition thanks to the dry climate of the Turpan Depression. Temples, fortified walls and city streets are recognizable despite the fact that it’s been centuries since they were first constructed.

A little bit further east of Turpan, the small Tuyoq village is one of the few communities that has survived the passage of time, allowing visitors to walk among mud-brick homes that are still home to Uyghur families today.

5. Watch the ancient process of making silk, carpets and paper

For those who are familiar with Hotan, a city in southern Xinjiang, you know that its most valuable export is its precious jade. But did you know that before jade became so valuable, Hotan was better known for its production of silk, carpets and even mulberry paper?

It’s a dying art but it is fascinating to witness: rows of women sitting with balls of silk hanging over their heads, weaving a massive carpet by hand or a family soaking the bark of a mulberry tree and pounding it into paper.

A handmade carpet is expensive and the paper won’t make a good journal, but these are the kind of souvenirs that you’ll be proud to show off, not to mention the pictures you took of the process.

Concluding thoughts

No matter what you decide to see in Xinjiang, make sure that you get off the beaten path. Tourism is becoming a big part of the region’s economy but I find that the more time you can spend away from the major tourist sites, the more you’ll appreciate the true beauty of Xinjiang and its people.

If you’re not sure how to go about visiting a village market, exploring the ancient cities of Turpan or hiring a car to drive you along the Karakoram Highway, be sure to pick up a copy of Josh’s recently released Xinjiang | A Traveler’s Guide to Far West China. It’s the most comprehensive, up-to-date guide on the region, providing even more context and understanding about the best ways to spend your time in Xinjiang.

]]>https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/china-stuff/china-travel/5-things-you-must-experience-in-xinjiang/feed/7World Baijiu Day is coming, Q&A with founder Jim Boycehttps://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/expat-stuff/laowai-interviews/world-baijiu-day-is-coming-qa-with-founder-jim-boyce/
https://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/expat-stuff/laowai-interviews/world-baijiu-day-is-coming-qa-with-founder-jim-boyce/#respondFri, 01 May 2015 02:01:29 +0000http://www.lostlaowai.com/?p=8836It's hard to ignore that there seems to be a budding baijiu buzz forming. Helping with this is a new international event being organized by Beijing's man-about-town, Jim (Beijing) Boyce. Join me as pick his brain on the spirit of the event and the event for the spirit.

I’d like to say I have a complicated relationship with baijiu, but the truth is that I swore off the stuff in about month-six of my China experience, and haven’t looked back in the decade since. I have to admit though, the growing interest in China’s most drunk drink has me raising an eyebrow and wondering if perhaps the millions upon millions of Chinese consumers aren’t on to something.

Jim Boyce has written about wine, spirits and beer during the past decade for his nightlife blog Beijing Boyce, wine blog Grape Wall of China, and both trade and mainstream media publications. Let’s get into it with him.

First, what is World Baijiu Day? Why does the world need a day dedicated to baijiu?

World Baijiu Day aims to get people together at bars and restaurants, or even at home with friends, to try baijiu on August 8. Why is it needed? Baijiu is the world’s most consumed spirit but few beyond China have heard about it let alone tried it. Anyone interested in spirits should try baijiu at least once in his or her life.

Any specific reason that August 8th was chosen for the inaugural date of the event?

It’s months away and provides lots of time to prepare. It’s on a Saturday which tends to be a party night. And it appeals to the superstitious, given eight is a lucky number and the event is on the eighth day of the eighth month.

People have suggested August 9, since the numbers for the month and day — “ba” and “jiu” — sound like bajiu, but I’m not sure this event would work on a Sunday. We’ll see about a World Baijiu Weekend. Anyway, I propose everyone toast New Year’s Eve-style at midnight on World Baijiu Day, as the calendar shifts to August 9.

“Fire Water”, “Paint Thinner”, “Nail Polish Remover” … I’ve heard expats in China refer to baijiu by a number of endearing names over the years. Why do you think the drink is so widely despised by foreigners and yet so revered by Chinese?

Most people dislike drinking spirits straight at room temperature, be it gin, rum, whisky or baijiu. When you add that baijiu tends to be pungent, high-proof and knocked back ganbei-style — shot after shot after shot — it’s easy to form negative associations. If people regularly downed a dozen-plus shots of Beefeater or Laphroaig, my guess is most of them would despise those, too.

But ganbei-style drinking is how alcohol is regularly consumed in China and social customs usually trump alcohol appreciation. I focus more on wine and often see foreigners shake their heads in disbelief during dinners when people drain glasses of a very nice vintage. To them, the wine should be savored and discussed. But to the people downing it, the person they are toasting is more important than the nuances of what’s in that glass. The same generally goes for baijiu, although I find it easier to appreciate a small shot of spirit than a six-ounce glass of wine done in one go.

Anyway, the aim of World Baijiu Day is not to convert everyone to ganbei-style drinking. As noted, most people do not enjoy straight spirits, so that only appeals to a narrow niche. That’s why we will go “beyond ganbei” to include baijiu-inspired cocktails, infusions, foods and even beer. We need to look at more ways of presenting baijiu in order to make it accessible to more people.

With the book and blog by Derek Sandhaus, as well as Capital Spirits opening in Beijing, and soon World Baijiu Day, it seems that there’s a bit of a change happening. Are foreigners warming to the drink do you think?

The craft beer, spirits and cocktail movements happening in many parts of the world has both trade people and consumers trying new and–for lack of a better word–exotic products. For anyone outside China, baijiu certainly fits the bill. Also, as more people visit, study and work here, and as the international status of China grows, people are increasingly curious about this country and what it has to offer, including its foods and beverages.

That’s not to say there has been zero interest. I’ve written about Beijing’s drinking scene for almost a decade and bars have long experimented with baijiu cocktails. If you read the interviews on the World Baijiu Day blog, almost every person so far had their first visit to China and their fist baijiu experience in the 1980s. Beyond that, I have no doubt some expatriate in Beijing tried substituting baijiu in his or her gin tonic a century ago.

But yes, there does seem to be growing interest among foreigners here and drinkers overseas, and we may look back in ten or twenty years and say this as the time when this spirit showed up on the world’s booze radar.

I’m sure I’m not alone when I confess that I was scarred by the liquid early in my China life and have actively avoided it since. For someone like myself who is now curious and wants to give baijiu another shot, so to speak, what would you suggest? Is there a ubiquitous and relatively inexpensive bottle I can begin the healing process with? A method or pairing you’d recommend?

I would suggest grabbing one bottle each of a light-, strong- and sauce-aroma baiju. You don’t need to drink a lot, just do a small pour of each. And whether you ultimately like baijiu, you should at least be able to appreciate the differences of these three styles.

I would also suggest trying an infusion. I took a bottle of 11-kuai 42-percent-alcohol Niulanshan baijiu and infused it with pomelo rind and ginger. I taste-tested it on a dozen people and they were surprised at how good it tasted neat and on ice. I also tried an infusion with coffee beans and vanilla that didn’t work as well but was still drinkable.

I think the main issue for many people is actually buying the stuff. If you don’t read Chinese characters, the supermarket’s baijiu aisle will be as daunting as the shelves of Italian and French wines are to many Chinese consumers.

You can familiarize yourself with the labels by getting a copy of Derek Sandhaus’ book or using online resources. I like this baijiu page on yesmywine.com. You can click on the links to the light, strong and sauce aromas and get an idea of the brands and prices, then order direct or match the photos with labels at your local retailer. If you are in Beijing, you can also drop by Capital Spirits and try the intro baijiu flight, which includes four styles for rmb40.

Excellent tips. Getting back to World Baijiu Day, I’m sure Beijing will be loaded with events. I realize it’s still early days, but can expats in other cities around the country expect any of their local haunts to sign on with events and/or specials?

Venues in New York, Los Angeles, London and Paris have either confirmed or will soon confirm participation in World Baijiu Day, and I am working on spots in Christchurch, Melbourne, Buenos Aires, Houston and elsewhere. In China, there will obviously be venues in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, among others, joining the fun. This project was only launched a few weeks ago and there is lots in the works at the moment! But I’m happy so far with the response and optimistic we will have venues in at least a dozen cities participate.

And finally, how can people find out more about World Baijiu Day (site, social media, etc.)?